Darjeeling, Limited: A First Look Inside the House of Waris Tea Room

Designer, actor, philanthropist, and all-around Renaissance man Waris Ahluwalia doesn’t drink coffee. He does, however, love a good cup of freshly brewed tea. “Stop, breathe, pause,” he says standing in the doorway of the House of Waris Tea Room, which opens in Chelsea today. “Tea is about taking a moment in your day to reflect.” After a month of caffeine-fueled Fashion Week frenzy, his words of wisdom are sweet music to our ears. The Darjeeling, Assam, and oolong House of Waris tea leaves were sourced from estates at the foothills of the Himalayas, while the Daylesford organic biscuits were flown in from England. With knickknacks from Ahluwalia’s talented friends (limited-edition movie posters by Rodarte,gardening tools from Cynthia Rowley, Olympia Le-Tan totes) and House of Waris luxuries and curiosities like fine embroidered linens and exclusive silver editions of his Omnia Vincit Amor collection, there’s more on offer than afternoon tea and sympathy at this ten-day installation.

Tucked under the High Line at Twenty-fourth Street, the shop used to be a vacant lot before nonprofit arts organization BOFFO started inviting designers to play with it. Ahluwalia was paired with Swiss architect Christian Wassmann, who helped transform the former building-site office into a Waris wonderland. “Christian calls that a reflecting pool, but I like to think of it as a moat,” he says, surveying the serene waters surrounding the space. Swathed in huge expanses of raw canvas, the Tea Room has the secluded charm of an explorer’s cabana; playlists from the likes of Albert Hammond, Jr., Camille Bidault-Waddington, and A.P.C.’s Jean Touitou set the mood. There’s a selection of Criterion love stories curated by Ahluwalia himself, who plans to celebrate the launch of a book by artist Eric Anderson (brother of Wes), with a private party after regular tea-drinking hours next week. “My inspiration for everything is love and history,” Ahluwalia says, casually leafing through a copy of his own book, To India With Love. “I just don’t understand either of them.”